Bhima Koregaon case: All three accused sent to judicial custody for 14 days

Pune, Nov 6: Sudha Bhardwaj, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves, all three accused in Bhima Koregaon violence case have been sent to judicial custody for 14 days by Pune Sessions Court.

One of the accused Arun Ferreira alleged in Court that he was beaten up during custodial interrogation. He said on 4th November during interrogation he was slapped about 8-10 times by police officials and that on 5th November he was taken to hospital as well.

The three - Bharadwaj, Gonsalves and Ferreira - are among the prime accused in the cases filed pertaining to the Elgar Parishad of December 31, 2017, leading to the Koregaon-Bhima caste riots of January 1 this year.

In the remand plea, the Pune Police contended that Gonsalves and Ferreira were entrusted with recruitment through the Radical Students Union (RSU) on behalf of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and sending them to the guerrilla warfare zones. The police said they wanted to probe how many and who had been hired for these causes.